I’m often asked what the next big thing is going to be in the IT industry. I’ve been thinking lately about Apple’s amazing success with the iPhone and how many people who are PC users through and through (myself included) have embraced the iPhone as a must have due to how easy it is to use. I continually hear stories of pain trying to get smart phones setup to receive emails and connect to the internet; with an iPhone it’s a breeze.

Given Apple’s recent amazing successes, it struck me the ‘next big thing’ in technology is probably going to come from Apple, and perhaps that ‘next big thing’ will be the iPad. Whilst initial reviews show that there is a long way to go for the iPad to be really useful, Apple wasn’t initially successful with the iPhone either, but made changes based on user feedback.

Australians have shown themselves to be keen to take up the new technology with Apple stores around the country selling more than anticipated, with uncertainty around when new stock will arrive.

Do you have an iPad or know someone who does? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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There are people who passionately answer Yes to this question, as well as those who passionately say No, it doesn’t matter - what is more important is the product / price of your goods or service, and that the website is easy to use. In taking this side of the argument, an example is usually given of a very basic / ugly looking website, which is easy to use, and has a large sales volume going through it continually. Who wouldn’t want the sales volume?

It’s the ‘form over function’ debate.

So how can we account for the ugly, yet very successful, website?

• An excellent sales and marketing strategy.

However, you have to think that if you continue with the excellent sales and marketing strategy, and add a great looking and easy to use site to the mix, then surely the results would be even better?

I’ve just received an email from a client telling me that her business has increased dramatically since we moved her website from being a basic one page design (it wasn’t ugly, but it certainly needed improvement) to a professional looking site with pages describing her services, testimonials, her background, etc.

The bottom line is that getting the most out of your web presence is, and always has been, about doing a range of things well: a design that connects with your target audience, a site that is easy to use and guides the visitor to where they need to be (this is about design, content and functionality), a strategy to market your site (and your business) to attract prospects and stay connected to your client base over the long term, and a well-oiled system to handle website enquiries and deliver your product/service.

It is possible to do better than your competitors by only doing some of these things well; but if you achieve them all, then you will certainly receive the results.

At Contact Point we are passionate about both the form and the function of a website, with different members of our team specialising in these different areas. We can also assist you with marketing your website and utilising email / SMS marketing to stay connected to your customer base.

What do you think?

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My humble predictions for 2010, in the area of technology for small business are as follows:

• use of iPhones and other Smart Phones for browsing the internet, collecting mail, etc will increase at a steady pace (I took up an excellent mobile offer that included an iPhone just before the end of December, so give me a call if you want to hear about my experience).  This doesn’t mean that you have to rush out and change your website for very small screens because the smart phones handle full size websites fairly well, but having an alternative version of important data access areas of your site could be worthwhile e.g. for data searches / operational data entry / ordering functions and the like.
• larger businesses, who to a large degree have held back from embracing the internet and electronic channels for marketing, will employ email and sms marketing to a greater degree, integrating traditional media and web-based campaigns to reach out in a meaningful way to their target market and existing clientele.  This will take away some of the competitive advantage that smaller, more agile businesses have had over their larger competitors.  It will also mean that your marketing campaigns have to be even more focused on delivering value and unique messages, not just selling.
• more and more people will use Google to find things on the web, and generally use the internet as a research tool.
• social networking sites will gather more momentum in the business arena, primarily through LinkedIn, Plaxo and Xing (rather than Facebook and Twitter), but I think there is still a long way to go before their use in this realm becomes imperative, and level of use will vary dramatically between industries.
• cloud computing / software-as-a-service where you utilise internet-based servers to run shared software applications and store your operational information will continue to grow at a slow-moderate pace, as businesses still prefer the bricks and mortar approach of having control of their data and applications within their own environment.  
• Finally, it’s fairly clear that Broadband speeds and computer processor speeds will continue to get faster and cheaper and hard disk capacity will increase while the physical size of the disks will reduce and become cheaper per gigabyte.  Will we use all this extra cheaper speed and capacity?  I expect to see the improvement in technology infrastructure paving the way for a myriad of innovative gadgets and software applications to make it easier to do common tasks, from anywhere.  Perhaps one of these will be the next “killer app”.

What’s your thoughts?  Found a killer app lately?  Add your comments below.

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